Category Archives: Other Sports

I’m sure there must be plenty of Christian Men and Ladies that play Basketball? If you are one of them why don’t you consider setting up a network to encourage each other? You could compare stories, meet up at events and maybe discuss how you could share with your other basketballing friends the Good News of Jesus? Do Jesus and basketball excite you, then maybe this is the calling you have been waiting for?

I am happy to put you in contact with others who contact me if this is of interest.

Put “Christian Basketballers” in the subject line and email me at mark@mccfc.org.uk and we can set the ball rolling. It’s post Olympic year, let’s grow sports ministry in the UK bigger than ever before, exciting times…. Mark Blythe, UK Sports Ministry Website Administrator

Basically B2L is a four year outreach campaign within the unique time frame between the Beijing and London Olympics. Teams from a variety of different Christian agencies can go out and prayers be aimed towards service opportunities in China, Central Asia and some surrounding nations, the Middle East, and Europe (2008-2012 moving Westward progressively). Mainly they will be doing:

These are four categories of practical and meaningful action that people can do even in more difficult places, should be welcomed by those affected by it (there are no laws against these four things if done in the right way), and can be used as means to strengthen or establish longer term initiatives. Read more on our web site if you are interested, or email us at ilovesilk@oval.com.

What we are looking for

Sports is of course a very easy way to connect and to serve people, and all such efforts can play an essential part in the road leading up to London 2012. We are looking for those who would like to be active members of the growing network of those involved; to pray, spread the word, and to send or facilitate outreach teams. As we work in unity and find synergy in our work, the effect is multiplied.

I’m sure there must be thousands of Christian Sports Players out there? Indeed many have visited the Sports Ministry stands at CRE and Conferences to ask if there’s a Christian group for their particular sport. If you are one of them and cant find a sports ministry already established for your sport then why don’t you consider setting up a network to encourage each other? You could compare stories, meet up at events and maybe discuss how you could share with your other sports friends the Good News of Jesus? Do Jesus and sport excite you, then maybe this is the calling you have been waiting for?

I am happy to put you in contact with others who contact me if this is of interest.

Put “Christian Sports Players” in the subject line and please email me advising which sport you are into at mark@mccfc.org.uk and we can set the ball rolling. Let’s grow sports ministry in the UK bigger than ever before, exciting times…. Mark Blythe, UK Sports Ministry Website Administrator

CGS support a growing number of church based events around the country by providing a grand final for the winners of each event to qualify for and to play in. The National Christian Golf Cup final is held around August-September each year. The 2016 Final is being held on Saturday 20th August in Oxfordshire.

There are tournaments in Essex, Surrey, West Midlands plus many other counties across the UK every year. Do make contact to find out more, to join in with one of the events or to set up your own in your Church. It could be a four-ball or 100 strong, just doing something with your Church Golfers and inviting your friends is the idea!

Christian Surfers UK exists as a Christian presence and witness to the entire surfing community within the UK, Ireland & Europe.

Sitting out the back, waiting for the next set of waves, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the creation around us. At Christian Surfers UK we are a group of full-on surfers who are also committed Christians and we see God’s signature written all over the waves and the ocean. Our desire is to experience this amazing God for ourselves through a personal relationship.

Our aim is therefore a simple one: to tell other surfers that they too can have a relationship with God. We are not a church, but our members represent a wide range of different churches to which they belong. However, it is our main objective to bridge the gap between the beach community and the church. We are clear that we are not Christians because of any of the good things we might have done, nor because we may go to church. God saves us by his grace alone.

The Aim: Our church is very much into organising regular events which we call “alternative gatherings”. These range from sports events, country walks, craft, old peoples homes and mountain biking. All are an attempt to engage with people who either cannot or prefer not to go to church.

The Brief: I needed a golf format that was not too long, not too expensive and preferably where we could start and finish at the same time.

A Solution: Shotgun start the back nine holes early on a Sunday morning. This means that all groups start on a different hole at the same predetermined time and therefore all finish at about the same time. Last week for example we had 12 players which I divided into 4 groups of 3. We met at 6.45 am and one group walked to hole 10, one to hole 18, one to hole 16 and one to hole 15. At 7 am each group teed off. Traditionally a shotgun (hence the term shotgun start) or a hooter would sound to announce the start, but we don’t have a gun licence and it’s a bit early on a Sunday morning for loud noises! Once a group that started on the 15th, 16th or 18th hole finishes the 18th, they simply walk to the 10th hole and continue until all of the holes 10 -18 have been completed.

Club Benefit: I approached my golf club with the idea and they realised that it was a win win situation. Empty course or people playing and paying? They charge us £15 for 9 holes, but suggest you negotiate what is appropriate for each course. We tee off at 7am and are usually all done by 9.30am, this means that those who want to go on to church may do so.

Winners: We produce an order of merit table showing the ongoing scores and present a monthly trophy for the winner.

Attendees: Over 40 people have expressed a strong interest and we regularly attract about 10-12 players.

Message: We give a short thought for the day at the end at the prize giving. Everyone knows it is a Church run activity and it is a great way to meet new people on their turf whilst having fun.

Summary: We think the format works well, despite being early, and could be one that others could take to their local clubs.

Higher Sports is a practical resource to equip any church in any country make a difference in its community with the life changing message of Jesus. The coaching module and the teaching packages are designed in such a way as to enable church personnel to run them without any external help.

Higher Sports is a 6-8 week course for churches and schools involving sports coaching and games together with Christian based teaching. The material for each of these three resources (rugby, football and games) allows for an hour of coaching followed by a ‘team talk’. The drills and coaching skills are clearly set out in the Higher Sports manuals with accompanying diagrams, teaching points and progressions. The implementation of these do not require the Coach to be qualified in the sport but rather to have an enthusiasm and enjoyment for working with young people in the sporting arena.

The resource bag contains all that is necessary to action the coaching and the teaching sessions and allows for Higher Sports to be presented in many forms:

As a course lasting several weeks culminating in an Awards Ceremony with a guest speaker from the sporting world

As a sports clinic week

Part of a summer camp programme

​As the basis of Church’s Holiday Week programme

​Integral part of a school’s Physical Education programme with provision to include delivery of key stage 2 values within the classroom environment

Inclusion in a school’s Religious Education programme with extended studies of the ‘team talk’ material

Logos Golf Ministries is an independent Christian charity founded in 2004, dedicated to Gospel ministry in golf. Our main areas of work are:

Serving Tour professionals through chaplaincy on golf tours around the world

Supporting Christian Club and Teaching Professionals and reaching out to others

Encouraging and equipping churches and Christian amateur golfers to use golf for the Gospel

Golf is a truly international sport played by 60 million people around the world and watched by further millions of men, women, boys and girls. Professional golf is televised every week in more than 200 countries and translated into nearly 40 languages, reaching more than 500 million households – why not get involved and play your part so that golfers hear the good news of Jesus Christ and keep growing in their love and knowledge of Him.

I’m sure there must be plenty of Christian Ladies that play Netball? If you are one of them why don’t you consider setting up a network to encourage each other? You could compare stories, meet up at events and maybe discuss how you could share with your other netballing friends the Good News of Jesus? Do Jesus and netball excite you, then maybe this is the calling you have been waiting for?

I am happy to put you in contact with others who contact me if this is of interest.

Put “Christian Netballers” in the subject line and email me at mark@mccfc.org.uk and we can set the ball rolling. It’s post Olympic year, let’s grow sports ministry in the UK bigger than ever before, such exciting times…. Mark Blythe, UK Sports Ministry Website Administrator

I’m sure there must be plenty of Christian Rugby Players out there? Indeed some have visited the Sports Ministry stands at CRE and other Conferences to ask if there’s a Christian rugby group. If you are one of them why don’t you consider setting up a network to encourage each other? You could compare stories, meet up at matches and maybe discuss how you could share with your other rugby loving friends the Good News of Jesus? Do Jesus and rugby excite you, then maybe this is the calling you have been waiting for?

I am happy to put you in contact with others who contact me if this is of interest.

Put “Christian Rugby Players” in the subject line and please email me at mark@mccfc.org.uk and we can set the ball rolling. The Rugby World Cup is on it’s way to our shores, let’s grow rugby sports ministry in the UK bigger than ever before, exciting times…. Mark Blythe, UK Sports Ministry Website Administrator

Similar to More Than Gold for the London Olympics an organisation has been set up to initiate the churches response to the 2015 Rugby World Cup under the banner of Engage 2015. The plan is to launch Engage 2015 in early 2014, and more details will be available shortly.

But before that we are looking to mobilise prayer. Therefore on 18th September – exactly 2 years prior to the opening ceremony – we are planning a Global Prayer Wave. Further details of this can be found in the attached document. ENGAGE 2015 PRAYER WAVE

You are invited to be involved in this prayer initiative. Also if you know of others, both in the UK and around the world, who you think would be interested, please feel free to pass on this information, thank you.

What is R4TW? – R4TW brings people together in a fun, healthy way using a passion for sport to change lives. We encourage and support groups all over the world and in the UK to organise and run 5k events all on the same day. This year we have set ourselves the challenge of running around the world in a day. We are going for an event in each of the 24 time zones racking up 40,000km (the circumference of the earth) so we are literally running around the world in one day.

4 undraising – in 2012 we raised $40,000 for sports ministries – groups can use this to raise money for their projects

T ogetherness – It’s good to feel part of something big, participating together with communities all across the world

W ellness – It’s great to use this event to promote healthy, fun activity

Where is R4TW? Since 2007 we have seen thousands of people take part in 20 nations. There is a growing number of runs all over the world—from Ukraine to USA and Nepal to The Netherlands.

R4TW Projects – Many lives have been transformed over the years. A typical project is ‘Just One Ball’ in Zambia where soccer is used to teach young men how to take responsibility and be better fathers. Let’s make more stories!

This global event really can help sports ministries so how do we help organize an event?

Based in Sutton, South London, we are set up around parkrun (a 5km free event of which there are many around the country), our home run is at Roundshaw parkrun, but we also have regular runners at Banstead, and sometimes Nonsuch. Our membership is about 80% from our Church, and 20% ‘associate’ runners, non Church members who lend us their support.

We also run together on fortnightly Sunday night training runs, and enter local running events (Perch 10k, Sports Relief, SLH Informals, Beddington 10k and Hogsmill 5 for example).

We seek to be a visible, friendly presence, mixing a local Church community with the local running community in a gentle way. See what we look like on YouTube courtesy of a video of an event that features us quite heavily – just search Roundshaw parkrun.

We also seek to encourage other Churches to become involved at parkrun – to be ‘churchrunners’. The Selsdon Baptist Church Runners have set up at Lloyd parkrun, Croydon and the Good Shepherd Runners are at Nonsuch parkrun, Sutton following similar models to us. See also our ‘churchrun’ document in the Resources section

Contact us via runners@chilternchurch.org.uk

How to set up a Park Run Club

Churchrun – a how to guide to setting up a church based running club

Chiltern Church Runners – a working example

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Can you take church out to people?

Taps into an external organised event (parkrun – free timed 5k run every Saturday) with its own infrastructure, you can contribute to the running by adding volunteers – but you do not have to organise from scratch. We, and you, can be supporters of parkrun as well as users of it. All you need are a few ‘runners’.

There are three simple steps;

E-mail the main parkrun site telling them you are a club, with a club name that includes the word Church, Christian, Baptist etcetera. office@parkrun.com

In some ways it is that easy. Each runner can link themselves to the club, club membership is retroactive – so all your ‘old’ runs are credited to the club.

The idea is to be visible and offer a gentle (but clear) invitation – ‘we are here, ask about us if you want’.

You are advertising via t-shirts, club name in results list, and weblink to your running page on the church website. Most recently we have advertised the Christmas services on the parkrun website – one regular at our parkrun commented we had ‘earned the right’ to do so, as ‘it’s not as if we had just come along’, we were 9 months in to attending. You could do similar things, in due course.

Over 20% of our runners do not come to Chiltern, we call them ‘associate runners’ and it is my belief that nearly all of those people do not come to church at all. We also run other events, we have run under the Church name in events all over England. People will come and run in the name of a church, who would not necessarily want to come to church. I would note we have chosen to give them free t-shirts as a thank you for ‘advertising’ us.

What does success look like? People coming to church would be great, but making people more open to faith and less negative about church/faith is also a worthy goal. Certainly reducing people’s already negative views of church was as far as I believe one post race pub chat with two associate runners was ever going to go. Also we are growing, more church attendees are coming, and having the opportunity to ‘fly the flag’ for Chiltern in a way they otherwise would not. If you can get numbers, it certainly helps!

To make it work at least one person should be passionate, or at least enthusiastic about the activity. However it should be accessible to a broad range of people. On that note it can be valuable to recruit ‘non runners’, one lady in her fifties who had the bravery to come has lead to at least half a dozen more believing they can do it – she now has over 20 parkruns. The ‘non runner’ has become a runner.

Those that really cannot run have also contributed, prayer, childcare provision, and volunteering have supported our ministry – don’t turn anyone away if you can help it.

Getting people to do something new in their Christian life is good, getting non Christians involved is good, but also getting Christians to make something they already do part of their Christian life is good as well. You can certainly ‘run for Jesus’, you can be dazzled by the beauty of God’s creation on a run, you can worship, you can support your fellows, you can ponder, you can connect, and (trust me on this one) you really can pray – sometimes for the end of the race!

I don’t think you can rush it, or be heavy handed about it if it is to work. That does not mean you cannot be open, an event report we wrote on ‘faith or ability’, got picked up on a parkrun facebook page and is still referenced there.

In summary

The church after all (cliché time) is not the building, it’s the people. When two of our ‘associate members’ chat with a church member who is also a runner, or when one of the fitness group members who use the building decide to run for us they are meeting ‘church’, and in fact they end up meeting quite a lot of us! Make connections.

My point is almost not to run outreach events that ask people to come to a church building, but to harness events like parkrun where people already reach out to those beyond the church and connect those events back, gently, to the people of the church as people of the church.

Many Churches have running groups that participate in the free weekly 5km parkruns that happen all across the country.

Churchrun – a how to guide to setting up a church based running club

Chiltern Church Runners – a working example

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Can you take church out to people?

Taps into an external organised event (parkrun – free timed 5k run every Saturday) with its own infrastructure, you can contribute to the running by adding volunteers – but you do not have to organise from scratch. We, and you, can be supporters of parkrun as well as users of it. All you need are a few ‘runners’.

Get T-shirts (or ‘bibs’) with the club name and maybe a slogan on – be visible.

If you can have a webpage (ideally on your church site), you can add this as a link to your club on the parkrun site.

In some ways it is that easy. Each runner can link themselves to the club, club membership is retroactive – so all your ‘old’ runs are credited to the club.

The idea is to be visible and offer a gentle (but clear) invitation – ‘we are here, ask about us if you want’.

You are advertising via t-shirts, club name in results list, and weblink to your running page on the church website. We have advertised the Christmas services on the parkrun website – one regular at our parkrun commented we had ‘earned the right’ to do so, as ‘it’s not as if we had just come along’, we were 9 months in to attending. You could do similar things, in due course.

Over 40% of our runners do not come to Chiltern, we call them ‘associate runners’ and it is my belief that nearly all of those people do not come to church at all. We also run other events, we have run under the Church name in events all over England. People will come and run in the name of a church, who would not necessarily want to come to church. I would note we have chosen to give them free t-shirts as a thank you for ‘advertising’ us.

Don’t want the expense of t shirts for all your runners? A new club has just used a ‘bib’ – print the name of your club twice on a sheet of A4 in large font (say Holy Trinity Church Wallington, for example) – reduce this down to 2 rectangles just under A5 size. Laminate and then cut in half, hole punch carefully in corners – you can now use safety pins to attach this club ‘bib’ it’s cheap, waterproof, and reusable. You can swith to t’s later, or not if you want.

What does success look like? People coming to church would be great, but making people more open to faith and less negative about church/faith is also a worthy goal. Certainly reducing people’s already negative views of church was as far as I believe one post race pub chat with two associate runners was ever going to go. Also we are growing, more church attendees are coming, and having the opportunity to ‘fly the flag’ for Chiltern in a way they otherwise would not. If you can get numbers, it certainly helps!

To make it work at least one person should be passionate, or at least enthusiastic about the activity. However it should be accessible to a broad range of people. On that note it can be valuable to recruit ‘non runners’, one lady in her fifties who had the bravery to come has lead to at least half a dozen more believing they can do it – she now has over 20 parkruns. The ‘non runner’ has become a runner.

Those that really cannot run have also contributed, prayer, childcare provision, and volunteering have supported our ministry – don’t turn anyone away if you can help it.

Getting people to do something new in their Christian life is good, getting non Christians involved is good, but also getting Christians to make something they already do part of their Christian life is good as well. You can certainly ‘run for Jesus’, you can be dazzled by the beauty of God’s creation on a run, you can worship, you can support your fellows, you can ponder, you can connect, and (trust me on this one) you really can pray – sometimes for the end of the race!

I don’t think you can rush it, or be heavy handed about it if it is to work. That does not mean you cannot be open, an event report we wrote on ‘faith or ability’, got picked up on a parkrun facebook page and is still referenced there.

In summary

The church after all (cliché time) is not the building, it’s the people. When two of our ‘associate members’ chat with a church member who is also a runner, or when one of the fitness group members who use the building decide to run for us they are meeting ‘church’, and in fact they end up meeting quite a lot of us! Make connections.

My point is almost not to run outreach events that ask people to come to a church building, but to harness events like parkrun where people already reach out to those beyond the church and connect those events back, gently, to the people of the church as people of the church.

The Salvation Army in the UK and Ireland are particularly interested in how best to engage with the world of sport in the run up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The aim is to establish long-term sports ministries within our churches and social centres that will extend far beyond the completion of the Games.

Already throughout the UK and Ireland, many of our churches and social centres use sport as a way of building relationships, supporting their community and sharing the love of Jesus. The purpose of this office is to share with our churches and centres how through sport we can worship God, do mission and discipleship. We partner with various sports ministry organisations and are looking to extend these partnerships where possible so as to empower and equip local churches to be able to do sports ministry in a relevant and intentional way.

The Salvation Army is also partnering with other churches and organisations within the umbrella ecumenical charity More Than Gold (www.morethangold.org.uk). At all international sporting events, The SA are often actively involved in the Christian activities that surround them and provide some unique services to participants and supporters during the event.

We exist to inspire, serve and encourage everyone in the skate/scooter/BMX/Rollerblader/Scooter community to find and follow Jesus

We aim to do this through forming local support groups around the UK, organise innovative mission trips, we also aim to train and equip individuals who are living in these skate park and street communities.

We want to network between local churches and ministries and use our combined resources to produce high quality Christian run skate events.

Finally we want to share good practice and promote quality resources to help reach out and disciple skateboarders, scooter riders, and rollerbladers.

The preconceived view of a skier or snowboarder is a white, middle class individual and goes away to the Alps for maybe one or two weeks a year, however, this is not the case for those who immerse themselves in the culture. There is a massive and ever growing scene in the 6 UK snowdomes and many dryslopes and Scottish mountains where people ride every week and the emphasis is on freestyle but there is also a core of riders who leave these shores each winter to do a season abroad. Those involved in SFC UK want to find their identity in Jesus, to engage those within their culture through genuine, loving relationships and to do selfless acts for others as they share the Gospel message

What does SFC UK do?

The first thing to know is that, “SFC is a VALUES-BASED organisation opposed to a PROGRAMS-BASED organisation,” meaning that SFC looks different in every place because each group responds to the needs of their own unique communities. Each location is not a cookie-cutter or franchise-modeled group.

So we define SFC by our VALUES as opposed to what events we do, and for that reason, the national office has taken on the effort to provide values-based TOOLS and RESOURCES to help our leaders create more effective events and opportunities to BE A LIGHT ON THE HILL.

For more detail of SFC UK, our BRIDGE values and up to date events please visit our website www.sfc-uk.org

SportsReach (www.sportsreach.org.uk) started as CSIL back in the late 80’s when the founder Graham Stamford was challenged to combine his two passions of football and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He got two teams together to play a game of football and at the end of the match shared the Good News of the Gospel with them.

In 1990 SportsReach was then founded and became a registered charity in 1997 (No. 1065723) and since that point the work has multiplied many times over. Our offices are at Carnforth, Lancashire and this is where our men’s football league, 5 aside league and ladies netball league are run from. We also have a ladies football team and a classics (veterans!!) football team. Each team is linked with a local Church and has Christian leaders who will share a Gospel message at each game.

During the spring and summer we organise soccer (7-14 years old) and netball (9-13 years old) schools around the UK. Always working alongside local Churches wherever we go, our aims are to give the children quality coaching and competitions as well as sharing the gospel.

As well as all this SportsReach takes football teams (both men’s and women’s) and coaching teams out into Europe as well as North America and Africa. In the Dachstein Valley in Austria, where SportsReach have been taking teams for 18 years we are known as ‘the joy people’. We always share about the reality of our faith in after game presentations as well as giving out Bibles and literature where appropriate.

I’m sure there must be plenty of Christian Triathlete’s out there? Indeed some have visited the Sports Ministry stands at CRE and other Conferences to ask if there’s a Christian Triathlete’s group. If you are one of them why don’t you consider setting up a network to encourage each other? You could compare stories, meet up at events and maybe discuss how you could share with your other triathlete friends the Good News of Jesus? Do Jesus and triathlons excite you, then maybe this is the calling you have been waiting for?

I am happy to put you in contact with others who contact me if this is of interest.

Put “Christian Triathletes” in the subject line and please email me at mark@mccfc.org.uk and we can set the ball rolling. Let’s use the Brownlee Brother’s Olympic success and the increased interest in triathlons, let’s grow triathlon sports ministry in the UK bigger than ever before, exciting times…. Mark Blythe, UK Sports Ministry Website Administrator

Youth For Christ. Yfc is passionate about using sport to reach young people with the good news of Jesus. YFC runs mission teams in football, basketball and street football – Kick, Fly and Nomad. If you want to check out details on these teams and how they can help in your local area then please go to our website at www.yfc.co.uk/teams. YFC is very excited about its Cage football and street football pitch, both of which are available to be delivered with your own church or school. Barry Mason is responsible for all the sports ministry in YFC and would love to hear from you with any questions or comments on 07734022443 or barry.mason@yfc.co.uk